President Donald Trump on Monday evening nominated a Heritage Foundation economist who has publicly criticized federal data collection at

EJ Antoni, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is no longer considering suspending the monthly jobs report — one of the most crucial and historic measurements of US economic activity — after proposing the unprecedented action during an interview that published Tuesday.

E.J. Antoni said that BLS should halt issuing the reports — which are widely relied upon by economists, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and other businesses to gauge the state of the economy in close to real time — until its methods can be improved to limit subsequent revisions.